With Family and Friends in Rome and Naples

American accents are aplenty in Italy now as spring arrives and travel picks up. And lucky for us, four lovely people with American accents let us piggyback on their rescheduled Italian vacations during the first two weeks in April. We had a fun time with family and friends in Rome and Naples. And we made an exploratory side trip to Ischia and Capri seeking surrogate Greek island vibes.

Roman Holiday

Sam's brother Mike and his wife Annette have had to postpone an Italian vacation for three years because of the pandemic. Back when they booked their original trip, lockdowns weren't a thing, we hadn't thought about seeking Greek resident permits (let alone Italian permits), and we also hadn't conceived of becoming Mainers. And we'd never even heard of Lucca, Italy. So it was a weird happenstance that we would be nestled in Lucca when they rebooked their three-year-delayed trip to Rome and Naples.

We took a pleasant, speedy train ride through the fresh green countryside down to Rome from Lucca and arrived the afternoon before Mike and Annette. But things in Rome didn't get off to an auspicious start. We had booked a room in the same hotel they had booked so that we wouldn't waste time in transit between hotels, But when we arrived, the desk guys said we had no reservation there. They claimed that as soon as they received our reservation request over a month earlier, they notified Priceline, where we'd made the booking, that the place was full. But we had no such information nor did Priceline--and we'd already fully paid for the stay there. We spent 3 hours by the front door of the hotel, mostly waiting for return phone calls from Priceline because the front desk guys offered no help. The Priceline 'emergency' call center staff was supposed to find a new place for us to stay that night, but they weren't trying very hard either amidst the busy Easter week. The hotel manager, probably tired of having disgruntled non-guests by his front door, somehow found a room for us about 45 minutes after showing us his filled-to-capacity guest calendar. It wasn't the best start to our trip, but things worked out in the end.

Mike and Annette arrived the next morning and we spent 3 days enjoying many miles of walking around Rome. It was our first trip south of Tuscany since we arrived back in Italy and we definitely felt the north-south divide our Italian friends discuss. Some Tuscan towns feel like an OCD person runs the sanitation department. If there's a job where OCD is a blessing for city services, isn't it sanitation? The south definitely feels less tidy and cared for.

But Rome's eternally alluring even if less spiffy than Lucca. We ogled fabulous ruins including the Baths of Caracalla and explored the tree-covered park surrounding Villa Borghese after being shocked at how packed the nearby Spanish Steps were. We indulged in excellent gelato, cannoli, and other Italian food staples. One day while Mike and Annette biked on the Apian Way, we walked from the edge of the city to a bucolic park (it even had a sheep farm in it) where we met a woman from Seattle who has lived in Italy for over 50 years. She was on her morning exercise walk and we tagged along all the while having an engaging chat about life in Italy while seeing Roman ruins amidst the rolling, flower-covered fields.

Noisy Naples

The four of us took an overnight trip to Naples, which felt even more untidy, as well as chaotic and loud. Rome's a great walking city. Naples, as a whole, is not. After making a bunch of unpleasant, unprotected street crossings and avoiding a few too many motorcycles on sidewalks, we took the rickety but atmospheric train to nearby Ercolano (and the archeological site of ancient Herculaneum) and wondered at the astounding and tragic time capsule there. We'd been there 7 years ago but more of the site was open for exploring this time. It's moving to see the painted interiors of houses, restaurants, shop signs, and even a wooden bed frame all preserved for us to see almost 2,000 years later.

Over to Ischia

We parted ways with Mike and Annette in Naples after a breakfast of cappuccinos and dairy-rich sfogliatelle. They headed back to Rome for one more night before flying home and we took the ferry over to Ischia. Ischia was windy and cold! In Rome Sam bought new winter gloves on sale, assuming that she wouldn't wear them until next winter but she soon donned them on the island and kept them on much of our time there. Ischia is quite green and extremely steep. It exudes a bit of Greek island vibe, what with narrow rabbit warren roads twisting up the hills and citrus trees planted all over. We were scouting it as a possible place to swim this summer. But despite some Greek island vibe, it's not blessed with the wealth of accessible, clean beaches that Greece has. And worse still, we saw lots of jellyfish washed up on the coast.

Crowded Capri

After two nights on quiet Ischia we took another ferry over to Capri. Our Capri arrival made us want to turn around right away. The place hemorrhaged visitors and we had to wait in line over an hour just to take a human-sardine-packed bus up the hill to Anacapri where we were staying. The arrival in supposedly quaint Anacapri felt just as overwhelming as the ferry port, but luckily we found ways to avoid the crowds.

Anacapri is stunningly perched high up on the island. From it we walked to the very top of the island and took in views of Ischia, Procida, and the Italian coast. After an uphill walk, nibbling wild greens like yummy friarielli and wild peas along the path, we took ski lift chairs back down to Anacapri. We were cooped up for a day due to storms, but the next day we walked a coastal path that covers a quarter of the island. It's among the most scenic trails we've ever been on. Aside from the ample coastal beauty and the gorgeous stonework path, there were hundreds of tile markers in the shape of open books describing the flora and fauna. The woman who wrote the markers about plants packed them with joyous metaphors. Here's the write-up for a plant in the hyacinth family:

A vegetable rascal with an urchin tuft, it hides a heart of gold in the edible and medicinal pink bulb...

Or how about orobanche:

Where the wind blows furiously and cuts deep throughs (sic) with the waves, it wraps the rocks with moonlike witchcraft, with its creeping woody stems wearing cushions of silver leaves and flowers of faded gold, shining like silk in the evening.

After seeing the first few markers we were careful to locate and read each one. Will we ever go back to Capri? We're not sure. But maybe, if you can visit in the offseason, it's worth it for this entrancing path alone.

We took a less packed bus back to the Capri port for our return to Naples. Sam told the woman next to her, in Italian, that she could move her baggage closer to Sam. That small gesture endeared Sam to the stranger! Soon we learned that she and her husband are from Naples and they started talking, all in Italian, about their neighborhood and sharing family photos with us. Then she pulled something out of her luggage wrapped in a paper towel and handed it to me. I get motion sickness on twisting bus rides and this ride is super twisty. I think I disappointed her by not being able to sample it on the bus. It was homemade casatiello, which tasted sort like a southern biscuit all mixed up. She even blew us kisses as they departed for their ferry.

Another Reunion!

Back in Naples we met up with one of Sam's best friends from high school and college, Donna, and her husband Darrell. They'd also had to reschedule their Italian trip due to the pandemic and again we were the happy benefactors of their significant delay. We spent a splendid day slightly following a Naples walking route with them. And we consumed classic local foods. The Neapolitan guy at the pizzeria had lived in Atlanta (where Sam and Donna went to school and where she and Darrell live) for 5 years! He kept referring to Jimmy Carter Boulevard. It was a great treat to see Donna and Darrell before they headed to Sorrento.

The next morning we took the train back to Lucca, where spring seems to be finally taking hold. I lack the poetic sensibilities of the Capri marker writer, but I'll close by saying that the wisteria is now in peak indigo bloom and fills the air with its ecstatic fragrance.